


Surprise

by Onyxed



Category: Sanditon (TV 2019), Sanditon - Jane Austen
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Birthday Smut, F/M, One Night Stands, Semi-Public Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-29
Updated: 2020-07-29
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:02:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25583311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Onyxed/pseuds/Onyxed
Summary: Sidney is at a party he doesn't want to be at until he meets Charlotte and they hookup for a steamy one-night stand. (Implied meant-to-be).  Set in modern times, American cause I can't write contemporary London speak convincingly. Nothing too experimental just some regular old happy smutty one-shot.
Relationships: Charlotte Heywood & Sidney Parker, Charlotte Heywood/Sidney Parker
Comments: 32
Kudos: 152





	Surprise

.

He hated parties.

Although it seemed there wasn’t an occasion in which Tom didn’t try and stuff as many family and friends and friends of friends into one of his new ventures. Parker Hotels made a great deal of money, established by their great grandfather after the Great Depression. When the people who still had money or were new money wanted to throw it around and not feel bad. Parker Hotels were lavish and expensive and one of the first hotels to be integrated. His grandfather was forward thinking in that capitalist sort of way in which money is money, anything else didn’t concern him. Luckily for him, as well as Sidney and his siblings- the only heirs to the Parker fortune, this mentality had paid for itself tenfold over the past few decades.

While the younger three siblings could be expected to live within their means, this included multiple penthouses and cars, it was the eldest Tom Parker who gave the most worry. Straight out of college he’d tried investing in a girlfriend’s fashion line, two restaurants and a gym. He’d had some success with an uptown bar though it was subject to mixed reviews. True to fashion, instead of trying to perfect that one growing business he’d purchased an already established bar on the other end of the city. The one currently strewn with birthday banners, an unofficial pre-opening party. “This will be the Antithesis to ‘Sand’.” He declared, Sand being the first location.

Sand was for bourjois sort of people who drank champagne next to people with cappuccinos. With track lighting and gold fixtures and just dim enough so that it didn’t feel like a club. The new place was clearly operating with the words ‘gritty’ in mind. The walls were plastered with posters and old band posters, all of it barely decipherable in the bluish light and chain-link fence that blocked off the back of the bar from floor to ceiling. The entrance on the streetside was deceptive, a regular door that led you about a foot in before turning into a creaky metal industrial kind of staircase. It gave the distinct impression that you would be leaving reality behind and descending into… chaos.

There was a small stage and a long narrow space that gave the impression of two rooms with the bar in the middle. Sidney could admit it had flare, it didn’t change however that he did not want to be there. Sidney didn’t want to think about how much money Tom had sunk into the place, without getting it appraised or assessed in any way. He imagined his brother probably spent one good night in the place and waved his card around declaring he wanted to by the place. That was more Tom’s style. He doubted very little legitimate transaction or conversation had taken place.

Sidney headed for the bar and parked himself on a stool as he ordered a beer. He didn’t bother to announce himself, he only recognized a handful of people in the somewhat crowded venue. He’d sulked at the office, dreading coming down and gracing everyone with his melancholy presence. Now he would sulk at the bar and drink until he had to be poured into one of his sibling’s cars and driven home. No sooner had an emerald green bottle been placed in front of him than he felt a large heavy hand clap against his back.

“Don’t say hi, or anything.” Came a familiar sarcastic voice.

“Babs.” He said before turning around, already knowing who it was. Babbington had been his best friend since boarding school and then they’d been roommates through college. Sidney grabbed the bottle and raised it, gesturing to the pretty redhead behind his friend. “Estie.” Esther, or Estie as everyone called her. Bab’s had met her in his very first freshman class and proceeded to pursue her for four years when on the day of their graduation she’d shown up at their apartment in the middle of the night in nothing but a trenchcoat and kissed him senseless. She’d been around ever since.

“Be nice, I brought a friend.” She said almost bored with a jerk of her head in the other direction. “Brunette little mouse. New to the city. She’s a coworker so don’t scare her off.” Estie rattled off each detail as if she were some covert operative whose mission was to get him some action, maybe. Estie had never used her powers of persuasion to play wingman to him before and he wondered why she was suddenly making any effort. The two of them had always had a sibling-esque relationship, often with more bickering than Babs had signed up for.

“No.” He said simply, and then smiled facetiously at her stone face. He then turned to his friend, “You might wanna catch Crowe, last I saw he was getting hustled by what I’m pretty sure was a hooker.” Sidney gestured with his bottle toward the other end of the room. Sidney watched Bab’s turn to his girlfriend with a ‘please forgive me’ look to which she nodded reluctantly as he quickly kissed her cheek and headed off.

To his surprise, Estie sidled herself up onto the stool beside him. She set down her drink and sat facing him. “What is it today, Sid? Shitty brother, shitty job or just a general shitty attitude?”

“Ah, you know sometimes, I forget you’re not human.” Sidney said mockingly, shaking his head mostly to himself as he tipped back his bottle of beer. Foam and sour alcohol ran down his throat in a pleasant way. Before he’d even swallowed the last drop he signaled to the bartender for a second.

Estie smiled malevolently at him as she leaned in close. Her eyes trained on his unflinching demeanor. She eyed him like prey. Her bones had an odd way of shifting beneath her skin, always giving her movements a catlike appearance- even her words dripped like cream and velvet. She was freaking terrifying. And while he could understand what Babs saw in her, he had to admit the other man was a glutton for punishment in choosing this woman in particular.

“You earthling’s sulk too much.” She drawled and practically purring as she played along, every word dripping with condescension. “Live a little, Sid. It's your birthday...”

Sidney smirked as she pushed herself off the sticky bar and stalked off. Probably in search of real entertainment. The kind she usually wanted Babs for. Esther had a way of talking that always made it seem as though she were trying to seduce people and maybe she was. Maybe it was the best way she could get people to lower their guards- not that she was intentionally deceptive. Only that she never liked not having the upper hand. Even in friendships or casual acquaintances.

None of that mattered, though. She was right. He didn’t want to think about Tom, didn’t want to think about how much his brother owed him or how much his sister-in-law, Mary, knew of any of it. No, tonight he just wanted to feel good. And if that meant getting wasted and waking up with someone he didn’t remember meeting, well that was fine by him.

When he glanced down the other end of the bar he saw her again. The girl Bab’s and Estie had brought. Someone Estie knew from work and wanted to show a good time apparently by dragging her out to a somewhat-seedy bar where she didn’t know anyone besides the woman who’d brought her and then promptly abandoned her to go make out with her boyfriend in a coat closet somewhere. Probably.

She was pretty. He supposed that was why the bartender made a bee-line for her the moment she stepped up, taken a little off-guard when he yelled over the music to ask what she wanted. She promptly stumbled over her words before asking for a mint mojito. Not like she really wanted one but more like it seemed to be the only drink she could recall under the pressure of the bartenders gaze. She smiled nervously as he turned to reach for a glass and the bottle of rum.

Her silky brown waves of cloud-like hair were pinned up haphazardly, loose tendrils were sweat-stuck to her skin and framing her small face like fledgling vines. She’d come out in a modified version of her work clothes, it was obvious. A white tank top hugged her ample chest and revealed enough skin to get her into any bar. However, paired with an inch-too-long-for-the-club black pencil skirt and low heeled shoes, the spaghetti-strapped off-white top was unmistakably an undershirt. The button down she’d likely worn with it was probably crumpled in her purse.

The handsome bartender, with his coiffed blonde hair and too-perfect smile, tried chatting her up. Sidney could make out every word of their conversation. The bartender asking the usual get-to-know-you’s as she stumbled over simple dead-ended answers. It was like she didn’t realize she was being flirted with. If she didn’t want to be hit on she could’ve just brushed him off and walked away. But she stayed and answered each mind-numbingly mundane question after another. Sidney was a little drunk when he mumbled to himself a little mournfully, the bottle already raised to his lips, “Ahh, the children will be beautiful but dumb…” Sidney tipped back until the bottle was empty. When he looked back the girl was gone and the bartender had been successfully flagged down by another patron it seemed.

Sidney was about to slide off the stool in search of better entertainment when he made a startled noise and nearly fell off the stool altogether. She’d appeared out of nowhere, standing not four inches to his left with her arm outstretched palm flat on the bar and blocking his path. That’s when he realized she was frowning. “I heard that.” She said accusingly over the loud thumping music.

“The sound of my heart-attack? Yeah, I think I heard it too.” He said sarcastically, rubbing at his chest dramatically. “Thanks for that by the way.”

“I heard what you said before,” She said again, unphased and uncharmed. “About the pretty dumb children. Maybe you should keep your pathetic drunk thoughts to yourself. You’re not as witty as you think you are.”

“Two things.” He said, lifting up two fingers and momentarily distracted by how slow and wobbly his own movements had become. He may have only had two beers at the bar but it had been preceded by three glasses of double cask whiskey in his office and it all just seemed to be catching up with him. “I said ‘beautiful but dumb’, so that was like, fifty percent compliment. ‘Pretty dumb’ is just all insult. Second, I’m the birthday boy. I am exactly as witty as I think I am.”

She rolled her wide eyes, cartoon deer-in-the-headlights kind of eyes. With him still sitting and her standing, they were exactly at eye level. He literally couldn’t look at any other part of her. Sidney could see she’d gone the extra step of smudging a brown almost-black color around the edges of her lids. Subtle, but enough to have the desired effect. A hazy piercing look that made his stomach flutter a little, thinking about how he could stare at her for hours on end and never be bored.

Suddenly she turned and began to practically saunter away. She had to know he was checking her out, the way her hips swayed when she walked. Maybe it was just how she walked, he didn’t really care because he realized something then as she was about to disappear into the throng of dancing bodies, “What’s your name?”

She only turned to give him an incredulous look. As if she couldn’t believe he’d not only insulted her, but also hadn’t apologized, and then proceeded to try and hit on her. He knew it was ballsy, but usually that was what women seemed to like about him. Although he did have to admit most of those women had a self-destructive streak that mirrored his own. They were just as likely to sleep with strangers and disappear into the abyss never to be heard from again as he was.

Sidney kept his eyes trained on the path for her white top, glowing as house lights tracked the room like a hundred little multicolored laser points to the beat of the music. He made his way up the stairs to where there was a little wire balcony over the bar. It was easy to miss if you were distracted by trying not to tumble down the steep stairs and ambling up them drunkenly. Tom had shown it to him the day after he’d bought the place and Sidney realized it was a perfect place to hide when he was forced to be there. Above the crowd like an owl on a perch, observing ostensibly as the world moved on beneath you.

His gaze found her quickly and he watched the way her hips swayed and the flex of shoulders as she raised her hands over her head. She was by herself and he was the creep standing still just watching her. He didn’t care. She was interesting to him and he would be lying if he said she wasn’t unbelievably seductive with her curving body and the way she moved it. Nothing fancy, just swaying and grinding and twisting as if no one was watching. Once or twice some guy tried to slide his hand around her waist to which she’d entertain for a millisecond before snaking out of their clutches and crouching to a new spot a few feet away. She just wanted to dance and that made him both smile and want to throw a protective wall around her.

Not that he didn’t also want to rip her clothes off and make her scream his name. The difference was he was just as happy to watch her be happy on her own. It made him wonder what a girl like that was like. Estie worked at a publishing house in their sales division, the part that coordinated book tours and public readings and sometimes oversaw their social media presence. Estie rarely associated below her own work status, but she wasn’t entirely heartless. The girl was young, too young to be at Estie’s level. She was probably more than five years younger than them. His best guess was assistant, but she seemed the type that wanted to move past that. Something about her screamed not to be underestimated.

Sidney must have been seriously lost in his thoughts because he suddenly realized he was looking at a group of gyrating strangers and the girl was nowhere to be found. He frowned and tried to spot her in the crowd but to no avail. He wondered for a moment how he could have lost her so easily, when he’d been looking right at her. He waited a few minutes to see if she would reappear but she didn’t. Resigned, he made a mental note to drop by Estie’s work later in the week with Bab’s and hopefully run into the girl. Maybe get a legitimate introduction.

Suddenly he was somber again as he went in search of the restroom, knowing there was a private one behind the manager’s office. Another hidden gem if anyone bothered to go exploring in the somewhat creepy space with all its somewhat secret-spots. He relieved himself quickly and went to wash his hands, all the while thinking that Tom might have finally stumbled onto something good. Sidney decided he would bring someone there for a good night on the town, if they got a real DJ and kept the crowd high, treated it like a club instead of another bar, it had potential he had to admit.

Sidney would never admit to what most people had already guessed, that if Tom had any success it was mostly due to Sidney’s intervention. Not to say that Tom didn’t have his own talents, he was a wonderful dreamer and visionary. It was a gift severely crippled by impatience and dismissiveness. Sidney could take Tom’s messes and make them shine, though he didn’t do it often. He knew it was a disservice to not force his brother to stand on his own, to fix his own messes. And even though Tom was the older sibling, Sidney had never had a stomach for watching him flounder when he knew he could fix things.

Abruptly the door creaked open behind him, his hands still under the faucet. It was the girl from before, Estie’s friend. He watched in the mirror as she slid herself around the door, leaning back against it and turning the lock as she held his gaze. “I saw you watching me.” She said simply and sauntered over to him. To him she seemed confident and assured, but all the while deep down her heart was racing she was sure her palms were sweaty.

He was the reason she’d walked up to the bar earlier in the first place. ‘Magic Man’ had blasted ironically over the speakers as she stood in an unlit corner when he descended the stairs. A keening electric guitar and a wailing female voice framing his entrance in a way that might forever be burned in her brain. He’d been all dark and brooding with an athletic build visible even through his fitted shirt and jeans that hung low on his hips. Charlotte had bit her lip and decided she wanted to meet him. She wasn’t good at being forward, she never had been, and she often missed signals when men would flirt with her.

The truth was she’d gotten her dream job as an assistant to the chief editor at the small publishing house a month ago. It was a chance to leave her little town behind. To live in a city where it felt possibilities were endless. She decided that first night in her new studio apartment, she would be relentless. If she wanted something she was going to go after it. No more timidness, no more insecurity. She was gonna put herself out there and if she fell flat on her face she was going to get right back up and try again.

Sidney, or Sid as his friends called him- the birthday boy, would be one of her first forays into that big bad world she so wanted to be a part of. Charlotte knew she was attractive, not the most beautiful but she knew the sway she could hold if she really pushed herself out of her comfort zone. Also, she had a leg up in the situation that bolstered her confidence. First, he’d been staring and he’d already called her attractive. Second, guys loved getting laid in public places. She’d gathered that much from her girlfriends over the years, how the experience was often considered a kind of ‘birthday gift’.

Charlotte wasn’t interested in giving the jerk a birthday gift. She only knew that he was exceedingly attractive, willing and she’d secretly always wanted to have the experience of being a wanton woman. The fearless kind that could love them and leave them. So when she saw him watching her from the rafters she knew he was her target for sure. Her one-night stand. Charlotte followed him to the bathroom, waited a few minutes until she thought she could hear the water running. She snuck in, making sure to wait until the reflection of his eyes in the mirror met hers to twist the lock.

“You come to teach me lesson?” She quirked an eyebrow at his joke and tried to act smooth with her response.

“Something like that.” She said, stepping forward to wedge herself a little ungracefully between him and the countertop. He barely moved back so the ledge was cutting into her backside a little. She opted to play it off and instead hooked her finger in his belt loop and tugged him even closer until she knew her breasts were pushing up against him with every breath. Distantly she wondered if she walked out right then if she would smell like his cologne. Mint and leather and whiskey...

He glanced back at the door and then down to her again. “You sure?” He asked, his voice already thick and heavy. Charlotte didn’t hesitate to nod.

His hands drifted up to grip her waist, lifting her in assistance as she did a little hop to sit on the edge of the sink. His hold firm as his hands slid high up on her ribs until his thumbs could feel the hard underwire in her bra and the curved underside of her breasts. He doesn’t retract his hold or even loosen his grasp. Their unflinching eyes are trained on each other as he steps close and she lets her knees slide apart to accommodate him, her skirt inching up her thighs tightly. The fabric stretched to tearing as he kept coming closer.

Charlotte felt a hyper awareness that made her feel as if the whole club outside could hear the stroking of fabric as his thumbs traced the shape of her breasts through her thin bra and even thinner shirt. Even as the bass of the music reverberated through the walls, she felt she could hear the quiet popping of the cheaply sewn seam of her pencil skirt loud like claps of thunder. His eyes moved to her mouth and without thinking she licked her lips, wishing he would just kiss her already. He seemed hellbent on watching her every reaction, however, and instead he just breathed heavily in a way that was almost like the ghost of a growl.

Her chest heaved with every breath, as if she were running up a hill. Charlotte had never done this before. She was far from a blushing virgin but still... She’d never had sex outside of a bed in her life and certainly not when anyone else was in earshot and not even in her wildest dreams was it ever in a dirty public bathroom. She couldn’t explain her own brazenness to anyone else, or why the man she chose to be so forward with was such an unmitigated ass. It was something she was afraid would only make sense to her. She only knew that the very sight of him caused her to flush with a hot kind of desire that made her palms itch and her breath catch.

Charlotte held his gaze as she reached down to unfasten the fashionable but impractical little row of buttons of her skirt. Five buttons but it felt like hours by the time she was able to hike up her skirt almost over her hips. Her heart thrummed like a hummingbird in her ears as he leaned in close while his hands traveled down her body. Along her ribs, ghosting over her hips and along her thighs until he could hook his hands behind her knees. He jerked her hard toward the very edge of the sink, she was surprised when she didn’t end up head-butting his chin.

She could feel him though, the hard ridge of him beneath his jeans pressing against her center. Her hips bucked against him in response and she opened her mouth- on the verge of begging- when Sidney virtually lunged at her. She whimpered into his mouth as his tongue pushed past her lips and seemed to taste every inch of her. He was so sexy and she didn’t really even believe he was trying. He’d barely touched her and she knew she was soaked through and if they did manage to get past second base she wasn’t sure her head wouldn’t explode.

He gripped her breasts in earnest, squeezing and molding the soft skin as she moaned into his mouth. Without looking he tried to pull her bra down far enough so that he could see her. He only managed to free one though and the strap now low effectively limited the movement of her arm but she didn’t care because his mouth was doing wonderful things. She clawed at his shirt, doing her best to yank it off over his head.

She managed to pull it halfway up before he moved back to her mouth bending her backward almost painfully into the mirror. Charlotte snatched the small clip from her hair and threw it to the ground distractedly, its teeth biting into her skull and keeping her head bent awkwardly forward. Sidney didn’t notice any of this as he was pulling one of her knees up, his other hand disappearing between them and she felt his fingers press against her through the fabric of her panties.

She gasped as his fingers slid back and forth and he groaned at the wetness he felt there. Charlotte essentially froze, her mind entirely consumed by the touch of his fingers exploring her through the fabric. Her mouth fell open and she clenched her eyes shut, the sensations becoming too much as he increased the rhythm and pressure of his fingers. She couldn’t see the way he was watching her face, his ears trained on every whimper and gasp. Suddenly he maneuvered around the fabric and hooked a finger inside of her. Charlotte nearly screamed as her hips jerked automatically, her hand reaching forward to catch in the shirt that had fallen back over his torso.

She wasn’t completely lost though. She had enough presence of mind to unbutton his jeans, though it took her longer than it normally would have. He was intent and focused on her face though and didn’t even seem to notice what she’d done until her small hand had pushed inside his jeans and was gripping him tightly. He made a quiet noise as he nearly buckled forward under her touch, his own fingers still inside her.

Sidney went to kiss her again, pulling her lower lip between his teeth- slowly beginning to move his fingers again as she did her best to stroke him under his jeans. Their arms kept knocking into each other but it felt like electricity was running back and forth between them, she didn’t know why she reached for him and he couldn’t explain what about her touch made him feel such intense desire and lust.

It was kismet.

A synergism that made them feel simultaneously as if they were bursting at the seams and burning from the inside out.

Sidney felt Charlotte shift under him, shifting herself so that she could put a suddenly shoeless foot on his hip to push his jeans down. He wanted to help her but he was too busy sucking on her upper lip and trying to rub the tiny bundle of nerves he knew would make her squirm. He didn’t get that far though as she tugged at his wrist, trying to get him to help her.

He was smug as he pulled back enough to see her looking thoroughly debauched, her hair mussed and lips red and swollen and her clothes essentially bunched around her midsection. “Beg me.” His voice nearly a growl.

She blinked, momentarily confused before she mustered up the courage to lean up toward him. Her lips hovered over his, barely touching as she said, “Please.”

He smiled to himself, she wasn’t the type to rattle off a bunch of dirty phrases like they did in raunchy videos and movies. They would have sounded foreign and insincere on her tongue, maybe even taken him out of the moment as he laughed. The simple and painfully polite ‘please’ somehow instead cut itself into his chest and he felt a pang of something he couldn’t name. He let the small word suffice and finally helped her by stepping back to slide his pants over his waist. Though not before fishing the condom from his wallet, while she discreetly shimmied off her own undergarments. He tore the packet and put it on faster than she could inwardly chastise herself for not remembering to be safe. That one could be a fearless wanton woman all she liked but safety was paramount.

Charlotte blushed when he yet again hooked his hands behind either of her knees and pulled her into an almost obscene position as sheathed himself inside of her in one swift movement. Her back arched and her hips tilted downward as she gasped, her movements edging him in that much deeper. Her eyes were clenched shut as he remained perfectly still. She thought he was waiting for her. She wanted to tell him it hadn’t been necessary, everything before had prepared her for it. She was more than ready.

When she finally looked at him she saw his face screwed up in concentration. He was trying to pull himself back from the edge, to calm his body down. He could feel her muscles gripping him and fluttering and he was ready to spill himself then and there. He didn’t want to. He wanted it to last. He wanted to leave an impression. He wanted to be someone she would never forget for the rest of her life. It took him a moment for the lust to dull, before he could move inside her again and not lose himself.

She was impatient though. She didn’t know his inner struggles, didn’t understand why he was holding back when she felt the finish line was so close. So even when he began slow shallow movements, her hips were twisting and bucking trying to get him to move faster. She made a sharp little sound every time he hit just the right spot, and even though he was moving painfully slow she could still feel her body coming up to a crescendo. She heard herself say ‘please’ again, though she hadn’t meant to.

One of her feet found purchase on a hand dryer that was protruding from the wall, so he felt safe letting go of her knee to grip her right hip and pin it down in an attempt to subdue her movements even a little. She was making everything very difficult for him and she didn’t even know it. Her back snapped into an arch again and she cried out. Her muscles seemed to grip him even tighter than he thought possible as she climaxed around him.

He couldn’t take it anymore after that. Even before she came down fully from her high he put both large hands over her hips and let his instincts take over until he was pounding into her body almost mercilessly. With every thrust she felt like her breath would be knocked out of her but she didn’t care. Charlotte clawed at his shirt and pulled him down so she could kiss him again, maybe even bury her cries in his mouth so that some poor bystander wouldn’t think she was being murdered.

She clung to him for dear life as his hips snapped almost into a staccato rhythm until she could feel him orgasm inside her and she followed for a second time. Her hyper-sensitive body attempted a third as he collapsed on top of her and she could feel his hot breath spreading along her bare chest and neck. Charlotte was panting beneath him and blinking through hazy unfocused eyes as she realized she didn’t think she’d ever had sex like that before in her life. She was sure a few minutes had passed and her body was still sporadically spasming with aftershock.

It felt like ages before their breathing returned to normal and their hearts slowed below racing. It was oddly comforting, his weight on top of her. Even as she felt her leg beginning to cramp and faucet from the sink biting inter back. She wasn’t entirely sure he hadn’t passed out before she nudged him gently. “My leg is going numb.” She said quietly.

That seemed to jerk him back to reality as he suddenly pulled his weight off her, peeling back to stand somewhat shakily. He turned to remove the condom and pull up his pants while she fixed her bra and top and righted her skirt, suddenly realizing she didn’t know where her panties were and the hair clip she’d been wearing lay broken on the floor.

Charlotte went to scoot off the counter top and to her surprise Sidney reached out immediately to hold her steady. Indeed her legs were shaky, but she didn’t know if it was from the mind blowing sex or the way he was looking at her. Somehow the room felt even more tense than before when they’d been mostly naked and he was inside her. Maybe it was the knowledge of looking each other in the eye, thinking about that in the room it just happened in.

Possibly, it could have been because it didn’t feel like a hookup. That deep down, for both of them, it felt like the beginning of something.

“I’ll go first.” She said, trying to break the tension.

He laughed nervously and stepped back to lean against the counter. That was when they both noticed the hand dryer hanging lopsided on the wall. They laughed at the same time and it felt like that spark flickered again, like a little flash of something. Their eyes locked across the room as she adjusted the strap of her top and reached to untwist the lock.  
“What’s your name?” He asked again.

She turned suddenly, catching the door before it could close behind her, eyes wide realizing she’d never actually told him. She saw him looking at her hopefully and her face softened as she gave him a small and endearingly shy smile, “Charlotte… Happy birthday, Sid.”

.


End file.
